Luton council pays £500 to evicted resident after complaint over its failure to oversee house repairs

There was fault as the council failed to check repairs were completed in December 2022 and partly in the way it communicated with the complainant, according to the local government and social care ombudsman.

The resident, who has autism, anxiety and a panic disorder, complained about the way LBC handled disrepair at his privately rented property, said the ombudsman’s report. “The council failed to ensure the landlord took action or issued an enforcement notice, leaving him unable to challenge an eviction notice.

“On his homelessness application, the council didn’t help him with discretionary housing payment for assistance to pay for private renting deposits, leading to his eviction.

“It also didn’t support him or contact him to deal with the eviction or offer him suitable temporary accommodation afterwards. He wasn’t given advance notice of where he’d be moving to, as a reasonable adjustment, causing distress.

“LBC failed to listen to his concerns, to resolve his complaints or investigate them properly, and to respond to his communications. He told LBC in December 2021 he needed communication by phone, rather than email, and again asked the council not to send emails in April 2022,

“The resident first approached the ombudsman in May 2023, but the case didn’t progress because of a lack of information. He returned about the same matter in January 2024.”

His landlord served a section 21 eviction notice in February 2022, which the complainant was challenging through the courts, explained the report.

“I haven’t seen evidence of any action by LBC’s homelessness team from May to September 2023. My view is there was fault in not explaining the timescales more clearly in 2022, which caused him frustration and distress.

“When he didn’t hear from the homelessness team in mid-2023, this made him feel ignored and not helped at a particularly stressful time when he was fighting eviction.

“LBC should have made a plan in March 2023 about what his needs were and how it would communicate with him. I find the failure to have this discussion was fault and has caused him distress.

“I’ve seen evidence that he made 10 formal complaints to the local authority from October 2022 to January 2024. Four of these were about the private sector housing team in relation to disrepair in his accommodation. Three were about the complaints team.

“One was a complaint about the NHS, which I’ve not seen. In two complaints about the private sector housing team, I’ve seen no evidence of an initial call being made to him to discuss the issue. There were some delays in sending responses, which is fault.

“I don’t find any evidence that his concerns were ignored, or not investigated. But I’ve found fault in the disrepair matter, which wasn’t found by LBC’s complaint investigation.”

The council agreed to apologise and pay him £500 to remedy the distress this caused and to discuss a communication strategy to enable better dealings with him in future.